Extension Magazine - Fall 2021

14 INSPIRE
Lumen Christi Finalist
When the
Holy Spirit
drove the
Apostles
to bring
Christ’s
message to the ends of the Earth,
they did not know that the place
known today as Alaska even
existed.
But thanks to many
successive generations of
Christians following the
missionary impulse of the
Spirit, Christ’s presence is
known and felt along the
Bering Sea on the far western
edge of the state. One
modern-day missionary
who has taken Christ
to the northerly part of
the world, where the West
meets the East, is Father
Stan Jaszek.
Alaska is quite literally a world
away from Father Jaszek’s birthplace.
He grew up in Poland
during communist rule. He witnessed
how St. Pope John Paul
II inspired his home country to
draw strength and enlightenment
from Catholic ideals to peacefully
secure freedom and democracy.
“That experience had perhaps
the greatest influence on my worldview
and understanding of faith.
Seeing Polish Catholics overcome
communism—mostly through
prayer—taught me that God works
gently, and change takes time, but
grace always brings forth positive
results,” he said.
Father Jaszek felt his own call
from God to transform communities
through faith and concrete
action.
FATHER STAN JASZEK |
DIOCESE OF FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
Christ’s light
present at the ends
of the Earth
MISSIONARY LIFE ON THE EDGES
OF THE WORLD
Father Jaszek was ordained a
diocesan priest in Poland in 1988
and soon began his first missionary
experience in the mountains
of Peru with the permission of
his bishop. Within a few years he
went to South Africa, arriving just
after the end of apartheid. He provided
pastoral care in more than a
dozen impoverished communities.
Like the first Apostles, the Spirit
continued to push him to new
missionary frontiers. After eight
years he felt called in a completely
different environment: Alaska.
He spent the first several years
in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim
Delta region learning how to survive.
“We live in isolated areas
where there are no roads connecting
us to the rest of civilization.
Everything is weather depending,”
he said. Most of the Yup’ik people
live subsistence lifestyles—fishing,
hunting and gathering for food. By
learning from them, he strengthened
his bonds within the community.
He develops relationships
founded in trust and respect, inviting
people into a further relationship
with God and building off
their existing spirituality. “There is
that conviction that everything is
permeated with spirit,” he said.
The transformation can take
place in the simplest of gestures.
One day, he saw a man struggling
to chop wood, so Father Jaszek
joined him in the chore and conversed
with him. The man was not
Catholic, but soon he began to go
to church.
Today, Father Jaszek rotates between
four villages and their parishes,
spending about two weeks at